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Health and Social Care Update - April 2016 : Mental Health

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Publications/Guidance

Mental health and criminal justice: views from consultations across England & Wales. With extremely high rates of mental ill-health among the prison population, this report draws on experiences from across England and Wales to determine the way forward for improvement. It finds that few of the prisons represented at the events were able to offer psychological therapies, and that primary mental health care remains the weakest element of mental health support in prisons.

Mental health services: preparations for improving access. Progress is being made by the Department of Health (DH) and NHS England in improving access to mental health services, the National Audit Office (NAO) has found, but significant risks to implementing the access and waiting times programme remain. The NAO's report finds the strongest areas are the clear objectives and strong leadership, with a governance framework being developed. The greatest challenges for the future are collecting data to show whether the standards are being met, building the mental health workforce and reinforcing incentives for providers. The NAO report is the first in a planned programme of work on mental health.

Integrated care to address the physical health needs of people with severe mental illness: a rapid review. People with mental health conditions have a lower life expectancy and poorer physical health outcomes than the general population. Evidence suggests that this discrepancy is driven by a combination of clinical risk factors, socioeconomic factors and health system factors. The objective of this research was to explore current service provision and map the recent evidence on models of integrated care addressing the physical health needs of people with severe mental illness primarily within the mental health service setting.

Office of the Public Guardian: Written question - 34212. Mental health In response to a written question asking if the Secretary of State for Justice will hold a public consultation on the level of fees charged by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), the Ministry of Justice states that work to review the OPG's fee structure is ongoing. It adds that, depending on the outcome of that work, a consultation will be published in due course if required.

CQC review of how NHS trusts investigate and learn from deaths. Following the Government's response to a report into deaths of persons with mental health problems in contact with Southern Health Foundations NHS foundation trust, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) is to carry out a review of the quality of practice by NHS trusts when investigating such deaths. The review will also focus on how trusts can learn from the deaths of those with learning disabilities and mental health issues.

CentreForum Commission on Children and Young People's Mental Health: State of the nation. This first report from the Commission reveals the problems that young people face when trying to access mental health care. Services turn away, on average, nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of children and teenagers referred to them by their GPs, teachers or others. The analysis of services’ eligibility criteria shows that this is often because there are high thresholds for access to their services, preventing often the most effective treatment of mental health conditions - early intervention.

Guidance for commissioners of psychiatric intensive care units (PICU). This guidance was produced in partnership with the National Association of Psychiatric Intensive Care and Low Secure Units (NAPICU) to support the commissioning of high-quality PICUs and improve patient experience. It seeks to empower and enable commissioners, managers and clinicians to jointly develop high quality PICUs. It provides summary guidance which will assist commissioners to meet the needs of their local population, and achieve the ambitions of the Five Year Forward View focusing on patient safety, clinical effectiveness and patient experience.

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